How to give information away for free, and why

You decide to produce a white paper to educate people about your products, or about one aspect of using your product. You want to offer it for free as a sales tactic, or to raise brand awareness, or as a service to existing purchasers of the product/services.

You push out a press release (or use another promotional strategy) and it hits some of the appropriate news sites, ezines etc. People start to click on the link to view or download the white paper.

And this is where so many people trying to use this promotion tactic get it wrong. What are these interested people, who are generally making a spontaneous decision to view your free white paper, faced with?

A sign up form.

Your personal details please. This can often be 20 or more fields asking questions about name, address, email, what sector they work in, job description, where they heard of you etc etc etc. And if they are lucky (not!), you will offer them a chance to click a few more times before they get close to the white paper - to view your privacy policy, to uncheck the box for further mailings, to read about the fantastic newsletter you will be sending out daily, etc.

DON'T DO IT! Let people download the white paper for free, unencumbered by form completion. Don't ask for personal details. You honestly don't need them.

Even a two field form - first name and email address - is a turn off. After all, they are going to ask themselves: what are you going to send me now you have that info? What are you going to do with my personal info?

It is likely they know nothing about you as a company, and you may be about to sell the email addresses for all they know. They do not want to have to look up your company history, reviews of your company and products etc just to download a free white paper which may or may not even be of interest to them.

It might be the most interesting and exciting white paper since sliced bread, but if you want to give it away for free, don't ask for anything in return.

Watch your traffic stats. How many people come to your download page and how many people actually signed up? Try asking for personal details from one set of ads, and not from another. Look at the difference in responses - there will be one and it might surprise you how many people are put off when you ask for their email address.

How to do it right.....

Include in your white paper calls to action to buy the product, sign up for a newsletter, and/or get in touch.

Try different adverts - wording, images etc.

Have different landing pages for each of your press releases or adverts about the white paper, all leading to the same download but with tracker URLs so you can see how many people responded to each advert. Then next time you can focus on the most effective ad.

For free info such as a white paper, don't harvest email addresses. If they are interested, they will get back in touch because you have given them full contact details, URLs of further information etc. Not because you bombard them with newsletters, autoresponders etc that may be of no further interest which they then need to unsubscribe from.

OR offer a non-compulsory registration to receive further information at this point. But don't make the download reliant on that registration. You want them to read about you, not be forced away by the need to register.

Make it easy for them to find further info without needing to pick up the phone.

Add specific pages to your site that deal with further issues leading on from the white paper, and track the number of visitors who come directly from the white paper. They are going to be far more interested in your products/services. After all, they have taken another step to find out more, and they have read the first white paper.

Include more calls to action on those pages and this is where you begin to harvest email addresses, more information about them etc but be gentle how many questions you ask at a time, or how much personal information you seek from them.

Offer a further white paper(s) within the white paper. You can ask for an email address at that point because they are expressing further interest, and you can ask them to register in order to get yet more free info from you. But it shouldn't be compulsory to register their details.

Internet marketers are a whizz at asking for basic registration details, and harvest enormous numbers of email addresses. You then find yourself on an autoresponder which sends out messages every time they come up with a new info product, or to follow up on the fact you haven't taken advantage of their latest offer, but it has been extended for 3 more days, and NOW is the time to buy etc. It gets quite tedious, and the pressure to buy is what the IMs count on and include emotional triggers each and every time they mail you.

Why do they do this?

Because Internet Marketers are making big bucks out of selling you their knowledge, software, tools etc. Really big bucks. But they also openly admit that their databases of email addresses often only include 50% or (much) less of people who have responded more than once to their marketing ploys.

Customer acquisition and loyal customers are important to you so don't put off over half of your respondents with your tactics the first time they come to you. Don't demand demanding personal details in exchange for a free white paper.

Let 'em have it. If they like what they see/read, they will be back. And if they aren't, then maybe, if they are to become a valued and valuable customer to you, and you are targetting your advertising/marketing to those places where they hang out, they'll see an ad of yours again, and be back anyway.

Don't waste marketing energy trying to gather up EVERYONE. Focus on those who are most likely to make a purchasing decision, and once they get in touch, treat them well and look after them.